Shoe



Nov. 5, 1935. I w. c. TYRRELL 2,019,587

SHOE

Filed Nov. 8, 1954 Invent-m1?- W- ['n TYR'RELL Patented Nov. 5, 1935 UNETED STATES SHOE William Charleton Tyrrell, Hamilton, Ontario,

- Canada Application November 8, 1934, Serial No. 752,018

4 Claims. (01. 36-45) My invention relates to improvements in shoes and the object of the invention is to devise an improved lacing for the shoe which will do away with the bow tying the ends of the lace now employed in the orthodox lacing arrangement, thus making for neater appearance and obviating the liability of the lace becoming untied which so frequently occurs where such bows are used to secure the lace ends in place.

A further object is to devise means in the upper of the shoe for receiving and normally concealing from view the surplus or free end of the lace employed in my improved lacing.

With the above, and other objects in View which will hereinafter appear as my specification proceeds, my invention consists, in its preferred embodiment, of the construction all as hereinafter more particularly described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:-

20. Fig. 1 represents a plan view of a shoe showing my improved lacing applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof.

Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section through the shoe with my improved lacing applied there- 25 to, and

Fig. 4 is a detail (broken away intermediately) of the form of lace I preferably employ.

Like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different views of the draw- 30 ing.

According to my invention, the shoe is of orthodox construction comprising an upper l and a sole 2, except that there is a lace receiving pocket 3 constituted between the upper l and lining 4 35 of the upper. The mouth of the pocket 3 is disposed at the upper edge of the upper I and lining 4, such pocket being preferably positioned in the shoe in that part of the upper overlying the depression in the foot below the ankle joint.

40 The lining 4 has an incision or slit 5 made therethrough positioned in the vicinity of the forward end of the pocket 3 and in proximity to its upper extremity to permit the lace being received into the pocket.

45 In lacing the shoe I preferably utilize a lace 6 of the form depicted in Fig. 4 of the drawing having a tab 1 at one end. This lace is inserted outwardly through the lower eyelet 8 at one side of the upper, with the tab 1 in engagement with 50 the eyelet, and then extends across to and inwardly through the corresponding eyelet 9 on the other side of the upper, then back diagonally to the next eyelet 8*- above the initial eyelet 8 and outwardly therethrough and across to the 55 corresponding eyelet 9 on the other side being inserted inwardly therethrough and then extended diagonally upward to the upper eyelet 8 on the initial side of the upper above referred to, outwardly therethrough and across to and inwardly through the corresponding eyelet 9' on 5 the other side of the upper, thence diagonally downward to and outwardly through the eyelet 8, across to and inwardly through the eyelet 9 and then diagonally downwardly to and outwardly through the eyelet 8 and across to and in- 10 wardly through the eyelet 9 The free end of the lace 6 then extends to and through the slit 5 into the pocket 3 wherein it may be coiled or doubled up to conceal it from view.

In removing the shoe from the foot, it is mere- 15 I ly necessary to insert a finger into the pocket 3 and pull out the free end of the lace, then pull up the looped portion of the lace between the eyelets 8 and 9 and subsequently loosen the remaining looped portions of the lace enabling the opposed portions of the upper to be separated and the shoe removed.

In lacing up the shoe on the foot, the loop portions of the lace between the eyelets 8 and 9, and B and 9 and then the looped portions between the eyelets 8 and 9 and 8 and 9 are tightened up successively, finally pulling on the free end of the lace which will tighten up the loop between the eyelets l3" and 9 When the shoe is laced as described, the lace will not as a whole become loose in wear as easily as does the normal lacing despite the fact that it is not tied, knotted or otherwise secure-d. The only possibility of a portion of the lace becoming slack would be in the case of anything becoming hooked under the loop of the lace between the eyelets 8 and 9 and pull being exerted upon said hooked under instrumentality. Even this is prevented to a great extent as the iree end of the lace extending between the eyelet 9 through the slit 5 and being coiled up in the pocket 3 is frictionally held in place by the pressure exerted by the upper on the side of the foot. Thus the lace is more effectively secured than if it were tied in orthodox fashion. This is because the lacing connecting the top pair of eyelets has no free ends and thus, when the usual stress which occurs in the normal flexing of the foot is applied to the top lacing it is distributed between the lacing loops li -9 89; and the friction is absorbed. This is virtually the well known snubbing principle of successive turns of a rope around a stationary object. Of course, the snubbing action here is enhanced by the friction of the foot on the inner portions of the lace and also by the friction on the free end of the lace which last is missing in the usual lacing. However, the friction of the foot has little to do with it as it is readily apparent that if a stress is applied to lacing loop 9 -8 it serves to tighten loops !'l=8 (as well as 9 -8 rather than loosen them. Hence, the strain is quickly distributed and progressive loosening can not occur as happens when the normal lacing becomes untied.

There are many advantages of this arrangement but the principal one is that the usual knot is eliminated. With no knot to come untied there is virtually no danger of the lacing loosening. Then too, there is no knot to irritate the foot when the knot is too tightly tied. Moreover, applicants arrangement presents a neater appearance and also extends the life of the laces by eliminating the intense strain and friction that must be placed on a lace adjacent the top eyelets prior to tying the shoe.

Furthermore, the above advantages are attained by my invention with little if any additional cost in the manufacture of the shoe.

My invention will be equally applicable to laced high shoes in which case the pocket 3, while having its mouth similarly disposed as above described, would preferably be located in the upper just behind the ankle joint and overlying the depression in the foot therebehind.

It is apparent that my specific form of lacing shown may be somewhat varied without departing from the spirit of my invention or the scope of the appended claims and, therefore, it is to be considered in an illustrative rather than in a limiting sense.

What I claim as my invention is:-

1. In a laced shoe, the combination with the upper and the opposed front portions thereof provided with corresponding eyelets, of a pocket formed in the side of the upper and having a mouth at the upper edge thereof, said inner portion of the upper having a slit therethrough in the vicinity of the forward end of the pocket, and a lace single-laced through the eyelets and having a portion continuing from the portion laced through the eyelets extending along the inner face of the upper and having a continuing surplus portion which is inserted through the slit into the pocket.

2. In a laced shoe, the combination with the upper composed of an outer portion and a lining, 10 of a lace receiving pocket formed in the upper between the outer portion and the lining with an open mouth disposed at the upper edge of said upper.

3. In a laced shoe as claimed in claim 2 wherein the inner wall of the pocket has a lace receiving slit therethrough.

4. In a laced shoe, the combination with the upper and the opposed separated front portions thereof provided with corresponding eyelets, of a single lace having an enlargement on one end, said enlargement engaging one of the lowermost eyelets, and the lace extending across to and inwardly through the other lowermost eyelet and then diagonally back across to the eyelet next above the first mentioned lowermost eyelet, then across to the corresponding eyelet and inwardly therethrough, thence diagonally up to the top eyelet on the same upper portion as the first mentioned lowermost eyelet and then across to and 30.

through the corresponding upper eyelet and then successively across diagonally downwardly and outwardly through an eyelet of the next pair and so on through the remaining pairs of eyelets, and

finally extending inwardly through the last un-- used eyelet, a pocket in the upper having a mouth adjacent the upper edge of the shoe, and the free end of the lace being disposable into the pocket through a slit adjacent an edge of said pocket.

WILLIAM CI-IARLETON TYRRELL. 

